Mark Twain, a Biography. Complete eBook

the reading of the Declaration of Independence,
and by a gorgeous display of fireworks from Russian
Hill in the evening, which I have ordered at my
sole expense, the cost amounting to eighty thousand
dollars.

Atnewmercantilelibrary
Bush Street
Thursday Evening, July 2, 1868

APPENDIX I

MARK TWAIN’S CHAMPIONSHIP OF THOMAS K. BEECHER

(See Chapter lxxiv)

There was a religious turmoil in Elmira in 1869; a
disturbance among the ministers, due to the success
of Thomas K. Beecher in a series of meetings he was
conducting in the Opera House. Mr. Beecher’s
teachings had never been very orthodox or doctrinal,
but up to this time they had been seemingly unobjectionable
to his brother clergymen, who fraternized with him
and joined with him in the Monday meetings of the Ministerial
Union of Elmira, when each Monday a sermon was read
by one of the members. The situation presently
changed. Mr. Beecher was preaching his doubtful
theology to large and nightly increasing audiences,
and it was time to check the exodus. The Ministerial
Union of Elmira not only declined to recognize and
abet the Opera House gatherings, but they requested
him to withdraw from their Monday meetings, on the
ground that his teachings were pernicious. Mr.
Beecher said nothing of the matter, and it was not
made public until a notice of it appeared in a religious
paper. Naturally such a course did not meet with
the approval of the Langdon family, and awoke the
scorn of a man who so detested bigotry in any form
as Mark Twain. He was a stranger in the place,
and not justified to speak over his own signature,
but he wrote an article and read it to members of
the Langdon family and to Dr. and Mrs. Taylor, their
intimate friends, who were spending an evening in the
Langdon home. It was universally approved, and
the next morning appeared in the Elmira Advertiser,
over the signature of “S’cat.”
It created a stir, of course.

The article follows: Mr. Beecherandtheclergy

“The Ministerial Union of Elmira, N. Y., at
a recent meeting passed resolutions disapproving the
teachings of Rev. T. K. Beecher, declining to co-operate
with him in his Sunday evening services at the Opera
House, and requesting him to withdraw from their Monday
morning meeting. This has resulted in his withdrawal,
and thus the pastors are relieved from further responsibility
as to his action.”—­N. Y. Evangelist.

Poor Beecher! All this time he could do whatever
he pleased that was wrong, and then be perfectly serene
and comfortable over it, because the Ministerial Union
of Elmira was responsible to God for it. He could
lie if he wanted to, and those ministers had to answer
for it; he could promote discord in the church of
Christ, and those parties had to make it right with
the Deity as best they could; he could teach false